


Ratchet Has Been in Quarantine for Five Days

by squireofgeekdom



Series: The Magical Girls Squad [5]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Human, Cooking, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Fluff, Gen, pandemic fic, quarantine fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:27:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24112783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squireofgeekdom/pseuds/squireofgeekdom
Summary: In which Ratchet's quarantined with mild symptoms and Drift isn't exactly taking it well, making naan and rewatching She-Ra aren't half-bad coping mechanisms, penguins aren't native to the area nor do they usually come in rainbow, Ratchet's love of potatoes is legendary, and you can't let chocolate cupcakes go to waste.
Relationships: Drift | Deadlock & Ratchet, Drift | Deadlock/Rodimus | Rodimus Prime
Series: The Magical Girls Squad [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1190902
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	Ratchet Has Been in Quarantine for Five Days

**Author's Note:**

> You can read this fic standalone from the rest of the series, but the first fic does set the context for the rest of the AU, and the fic prior to this one sets some relationship context. 
> 
> Inspired by choomchoom's pandemic fic set in their grad student au, 'Maybe it's enough', check it out!

Ratchet has been in quarantine for five days. 

Rodimus is pretty sure Drift’s been quietly breaking down for four days, twenty two hours, and seventeen minutes. Give or take, based on when Ratchet had texted her. 

Which, listen, they’re all a bit breaking down. The two of them have been in isolation together for four weeks - three weeks longer than the state’s stay at home order, and a week longer than the city had started business closures. The alternative had been Ratchet throwing a hardback, thousand page medical textbook at them from at least six feet away. Or worse, Ratchet worrying about them. 

Rodimus had moved downstairs, to Drift’s new apartment, because the kitchen was better and Drift had the mini clothes washer she could refill from her sink, so the two of them didn’t need to use the shared laundry room on Rodimus’s floor. The two of them had been regularly ping-ponging from ‘sort of alright’ to ‘and I must scream’ ever since. 

Except now Drift had landed in a big cup of Nothing. 

If Drift were worrying, that would be easier. She’d been worrying some on day one.  _ Rodimus  _ is still worrying, even with Ratchet video calling regularly to remind the two of them that they’re alive, that their blood ox levels are fine, or when they told them the fever broke. She hates the worrying, but she’s  _ doing  _ things about it, even if those things are ‘making an insane amount of garlic naan over a weekend’ and ‘rewatching She-Ra for the fifth time and having an inordinate number of feelings about Double Trouble being a complete bastard.’

Drift doesn’t have opinions on what they watch, or what Rodimus cooks. She’d seem like she was just exceptionally calm if Rodimus didn’t know better. 

Drift’s just - checked out. 

“I’m going to go cook,” Rodimus says to Drift, “want to help?”

Drift hums noncommittally from the couch. “I’m good.”

“I was going to make a bunch, so we can take Ratchet some.” She’s been putting on her mask and going upstairs to leave bags of tupperware containers of food Ratchet’s door - and then texting them about the delivery - for the past few days.

“Good idea.”

“You sure you don’t want to help?” Rodimus tries to grin. “Make sure I don’t make the dal too spicy?”

“You’ll do fine.”

“Okay.” Rodimus works to keep her grin from turning into a grimace. “I was thinking afterwards we could rewatch some of She-Ra, since the new season’s coming out next month. I was rewatching it a bit earlier,” okay, understatement, “and caught some things I wanted your opinion on.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Would you rather watch something else?”

“No, that sounds good.”

Okay, she’s sick of this. “And then I was thinking we could invite a whole flock of rainbow penguins over for dessert.”

“Uhuh.”

“Drift?”

“Mhm.”

“Are you listening?”

“Yeah.”

Rodimus sits down on the arm of the couch. “Drift, I just said I was going to invite rainbow penguins over.”

“Yeah, good idea.”

“Penguins? The - y'know? Tuxedo birds? Huddle together a lot? Don’t normally come in rainbow? Not native to northern Arizona?”

Drift blinks. “... I assumed you were joking.”

“And I didn’t get a laugh? Not even a giggle?”

“I was playing along.”

“You playing along normally sounds like ‘Rodimus, inviting penguins over wouldn’t be healthy social distancing practice. What if we got them sick?’”

“So maybe I got distracted. Sorry I’m not paying total attention to you at all times, okay? This is a bit -”

“It’s not that -” well yeah, that is a bummer, but she’ll deal with that on her own time, “like, it’s not the  _ greatest  _ thing in the world, but - Drift, you’ve hardly been paying attention to  _ anything _ for the past few days. You haven’t had an opinion on anything, you haven’t wanted to do anything -”

“We’re stuck in my apartment, what is there for us to do?”

“Cook with me! Teach me a new yoga routine! Suggest what show to watch, just one time!” Rodimus says, “You weren’t like this last week, you  _ know  _ it.”

“Maybe I just got tired pretending everything’s okay.”

“Look,” Rodimus says, “I know everything’s not okay. We talked about this week one. It’s not okay; you don’t have to pretend it is,” she adds, “but - we need to be able to talk about what we should have for dinner and what we should watch -”

“I am -”

_ “And we need to be able to talk about what’s not okay.” _

“... fine.” Drift rolls her eyes. “Talk.”

“Ratchet’s in quarantine.” 

“Uhuh.”

“Ratchet’s in quarantine in their apartment for another,” Rodimus quickly checks to herself, “nine days.”

“That is what two weeks minus five days equals, yeah.”

“They’re in quarantine because they had a dry cough and a fever.”

“Their fever broke.” Drift says. “They didn’t even get a test, so we don’t even know it’s not a bad cold.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s not scary, Drift.” Rodimus says, gently. “I’m worried. You were worried, when we heard.”

“Yeah,” Drift grits out, “but then I realized it was silly to worry.” 

“And why’s that?”

“Because there’s nothing I can do,” and Drift’s voice cracks on the last word, and Rodimus wants to hug her. She has a feeling Drift would just shrug her off now, so she doesn’t. 

“There’s nothing I can do, either,” Rodimus says, “and I’m still worried.”

“It’s stupid.” Drift shakes her head, “I shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“Any of this.” Drift says, and now the words are pouring out of her, "I was just - I was just stupid -  _ stupid _ enough to - start to think I could care about people  _ again _ . I told myself I wouldn't make that mistake again, and - and now -"

"You're scared."

"I'm - I'm -"

"I'm scared too. I don't want anything to happen to them, you know that," Rodimus says. 

Drift nods. “I know.”

"They're your partner,” she says, “it's okay to be scared for them."

"I should never have -"

"You don't mean that."

"Yes I do!" Drift snaps. "I already - I already did this once,"

"You lost someone who was family to you,"  _ And you're afraid that could happen again _ , Rodimus thinks but doesn't say.

"And I  _ swore _ I'd never let that happen again. I told myself -"

"Would you really rather have said no? Have never befriended them in the first place?"

"I shouldn't -"

"Drift, you know that's not true."

Drift chokes back a sob.

Rodimus reaches out an arm, and Drift falls into her hug.

"I'm - I'm not good." Drift mumbles into her shoulder. "Whenever I care about someone - whenever I'm happy - it means something's  _ wrong. _ Because I'm wrong."

Rodimus presses a kiss to the top of her head, and Drift lets out a weak sob. "There's nothing wrong with you. Hey," she says, "you're happy with me, right?"

Drift nods into Rodimus's flannel.

"And there's nothing wrong with us; you're the best girlfriend in the whole world, okay? The whole  _ universe." _

Drift lets out a weak laugh. "I'm crying all over you."

"I'm good with that." Rodimus says. "Hey," she adds, "I - I'm really sorry for everything you've been through, alright? But it's not you. It's not you  _ now. _ You're not responsible for a global pandemic, okay?"

Drift half laughs, half sobs. "That makes it sound pretty stupid."

"It's not stupid." Drift huffs. "Okay, maybe a little bit - what would Ratchet call it? 'Irrational'? But I understand why you'd feel that way, after everything. But it's not true. It's not." Rodimus says. "You're fine."

"I just - I hate this." Drift shakes her head into Rodimus's shirt. "I should be able to do something, but I - I can't. I can't look out for them, or - or fight something, or get - get something to help. I should be able to  _ protect _ them. I can't - I can't do anything to  _ stop _ this. I can't even  _ see _ them." Drift swallows. "What's the use in anything we can do if," she adds, and Rodimus can feel her clutching at her badge, "we can't even do anything to protect the people we - we -"

"Yeah," Rodimus says, "I know. I hate it too."

"I just - I can't deal with feeling like this. Not with -"

"Hey, hey." Rodimus says. "You don't have to deal with this alone, okay?"

Drift takes a deep breath. "...okay."

"C'mon," Rodimus says, "I'm going to make some dal; I’ve got enough lentils soaking to give Ratch a couple meals worth, at least." she squeezes Drifts shoulder. "Maybe we can't protect them, but we can still help. Keep 'em from eating nothing but microwave rice and beans out of a can, at least."

Drift laughs weakly. "Don't forget instant mashed potatoes."

"How could I?" Rodimus grins. 

“We should make them something with potatoes.” Drift suggests, and Rodimus smiles at having gotten her onboard with the kitchen. “So they don’t forget.”

“Yeah,” Rodimus says, “Yeah. Of course.” Ratchet would forget about meals, sometimes. When they were working they often ate mostly food-in-bar-form. Rodimus had never seen so many cliff bars in someone’s pantry as in Ratchet’s. But whatever you could say about them, they did have a love of potatoes that was almost a parody of their Irish background. “Let’s make those potato samosas they like, we’ve got a couple of potatoes we need to use, they look ready to grow eyes.” 

“Yeah. They like samosas.” 

"C'mon,” Rodimus says, "give me a hand in the kitchen. We'll make batter for chocolate cupcakes while the lentils are in the instant pot."

"For Ratchet?"

"I mean, it's not like they can eat a whole batch of chocolate cupcakes by  _ themself," _ Rodimus says, grinning at Drift, "we're practically required to eat some ourselves. To avoid food waste."

"Of course," Drift laughs properly, taking the tissue Rodimus hands her and wiping at her eyes.

"We can video-call them afterwards. I'll bet you a cupcake you'll feel better after a few hours in the kitchen." Rodimus says, smiling as she squeezes Drift's shoulder.

"Just one cupcake?" Drift teases, "That sounds like a weak bet."

"Alright," Rodimus grins, "three cupcakes."

"That sounds more like it," Drift grins back, "Alright, Chef Rodimus, lead the way."

**Author's Note:**

> Hoping y'all are staying safe and well! Wash your hands, practice responsible social distancing, tip delivery workers!


End file.
